Iorram (Boat Song)
Synopsis
Archive sound recordings of ghostly voices, stories and songs from the last century are mixed with stunning footage of daily life in the islands today, on land and sea, to create a lyrical and playful dialogue between past and present, and between sound and vision, set to an original score composed and performed by award-winning folk musician Aidan O’Rourke.
IORRAM began as an experiment to make a cinematic film entirely composed from archive sound and contemporary moving images. The sound archive at the heart of this project contains over 30,000 pieces of previously untranslated and largely unheard Scottish Gaelic recordings, representing a treasure trove of cultural history and memories which deserve to be heard.
Making documentaries from archive film footage is a long established practice, but there are also vast riches in sound archives around the world, which are gradually being digitized and restored, and represent a valuable resource for filmmakers interested to explore the relationship between past and present, and between the ears and the eyes. If cinema has historically prioritized vision over sound, IORRAM marks an ambitious effort to redress the balance, and provide audiences with a new and deeply satisfying kind of cinematic experience.
Details
- Year
- 2021
- Type of project
- Features
- Running time
- 96 min
- Format
- 4k digital
- Director
-
Alastair Cole
- Producer
- Adam Dawtrey, Alastair Cole
- Executive Producer
- Mary Bell, Mark Thomas, Margaret Mary Murray
- Editor
- Colin Monie
- Director of Photography
- Alastair Cole
- Composer
- Aidan O'Rourke
Categories
Production Status
Production Company
Bofa Productions and Tongue Tied Films, in association with Creative Scotland and MG Alba
+ 44 (0)7739 954106
Sales Company
n/a
Page updates
This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.
See also
You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.
Colours of the Alphabet
Director: Alastair Cole
Year: 2016
A beautiful, inspiring and bittersweet story about language and childhood in Africa. Steward, Elizabeth and M’barak are three first time school pupils in rural Zambia who struggle to make sense of an educational system where the language they speak at home is different from the language used in the classroom. Moments of perplexed incomprehension, both comedic and tragic ensue, as the children slowly come to terms with the fact that their tongue is no longer their own. At a time when nearly 40% of the world’s population lack access to education in their own language, this documentary offers an intimate and moving insight into a global phenomenon from the unique perspective of three innocent children.
The Recce
Director: Daniel Mann
Year: 2026
Drawing on a location test filmed in Uganda and an email exchange with the scout, this short film captures cinema’s ties to land and its entanglement with colonial imaginaries, binding the fiction of filmmaking with state-building. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2026 - Forum Expanded - World premiere
Children No More: "Were and Are Gone"
Director: Hilla Medalia
Year: 2025
Israeli peace activists hold silent vigils in Tel Aviv, displaying photos of Gaza's young victims. Despite facing public backlash, their wordless demonstrations powerfully highlight war's human cost. Official Selection DOC NYC 2025 Academy Awards 2026 - Best Documentary Short Film - Nomination